Last Jedi Director Reveals Other Options Considered for Rey's Parents

There have been numerous criticisms of Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi and Rey's parents popped up as an early gripe from many Star Wars fans. J.J. Abrams set fans up with incredibly high expectations of Rey and her parents in The Force Awakens, with many speculating about her lineage for months after the movie arrived in theaters. Is she a Skywalker? Maybe a Kenobi? How did she learn to use the Force so quickly? For fans, The Last Jedi was supposed to address all of these questions and more. In a new interview, Rian Johnson discusses the options he considered while making the movie and carving out Rey's path. There are SPOILERS for The Last Jedi ahead, read at your own risk.

When it was revealed that Rey's parents were nobodies, just trash from Jakku, many Star Wars fans went insane after J.J. Abrams teased of what or who she could be in The Force Awakens. Rian Johnson says that his option was the best because the reveal is meant for Rey, not the audience. The director wanted something that was difficult to accept for the character, which ultimately came down to one question: "what is the hardest thing she could hear?" And depending on who you ask, the reveal is perfect and goes in an opposite direction of where everybody thought that Rian Johnson was going to go.

Now, Rian Johnson is speaking up about some of the options that he considered for Rey and her parents in a new interview. The director admits to looking at every fan theory from Reddit and other places online, going as far as to write them down and consider some of the less wacky theories. Though he had a clear idea of where he wanted Rey's story to go from the beginning, the director reveals that he had "the big ass document," that contained alternatives. He explains.

"It's not like I was aware of those expectations and was trying to purposefully poke people in the eye. I was writing based on my honest gut reactions to what the most powerful turn of events would be to those questions. I honestly listed everything I could think of, even awful possibilities where I said, 'This is not what we're going to do.' I mean the less silly one was, 'Is she a clone?' Anything that's a theory on Reddit now I guarantee was listed on that document."

Rian Johnson went on to mention some of the more outlandish ideas that were written in his "big ass document." Besides Rey being a clone, Johnson said that he briefly thought of her being a robot. He had this to say.

"The silliest one was, 'Is she a robot?' Okay, we've seen a biomechanical realistic flesh hand on Luke, could the technology have advanced significantly in the 30 years, and then I just started laughing. Look forward to the Rey was almost a robot headlines."

Rey as a robot is pretty silly, but one has to imagine what Star Wars fans would've enjoyed more. Would a robot Rey have been a better choice than what we saw?

The director also spoke about a possible big similarity to The Empire Strikes Back that was briefly considered. Rian Johnson admits that he thought of the "I am your father" moment from Luke and Darth Vader and placed it on to Rey for The Last Jedi. In the end, the director says he couldn't do it, which is a good thing. Johnson was criticized for making a clone of The Empire Strikes Back from the beginning, so it was a big shock for Star Wars fans to see him go in a completely different direction. You can check out the rest of the interview with Rian Johnson where he discusses the possibilities for Rey over at Slash Film.